Various embodiments described herein relate to computer systems, methods and programs, and more particularly to systems, methods and computer programs that provide metadata for a computer program.
Metadata is “data about data”. In the context a computer program, metadata may be used to describe the content of the computer program using a given metadata standard.
Metadata itself is data that can be stored and managed in a database, often called a “metadata registry” or “metadata repository”. Metadata is generally structured according to a standardized context using a well defined metadata schema. The metadata schema may contain the rules created to structure the fields or elements of metadata. The metadata schema may be expressed in a mark-up or programming language, such as Extensible Markup Language (XML). Metadata schema can be hierarchical in nature, where relationships exist between metadata elements, and elements are nested so that parent-child relationships exist between the elements. Thus, metadata may be expressed in a hierarchical object-oriented structure.
As the complexity of computer programs increase, the complexity of the metadata thereof may also increase. For example, an enterprise computer program, also referred to as a mainframe computer program, may contain hundreds of thousands of lines of associated metadata. A specific example will now be provided relative to mainframe computer programs marketed by CA, Inc. (“CA”), the assignee of the present application.
Specifically, CA mainframe computer programs generally require metadata that CA Mainframe Software Manager (CA MSM), now known as CA Chorus™ Software Manager (CA CSM), uses to configure the program after installation and deployment. The metadata is written in XML using an XML editor. The metadata must be error-free, complete, and must conform to a metadata schema that is specified by CA CSM Software Configuration Service (SCS).
Unfortunately, a mainframe computer program may include on the order of 150,000 lines of XML metadata. It is, therefore, difficult and time consuming to design metadata that is error-free and complete using an XML editor.